Critical issues facing
Americans in 2004

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
1:00 am EST, Monday, March 1, 2004

Instead of letting gay marriage take center stage in this political season, the spotlight should rest on issues such as the following, which are much more critical to the health and happiness of American families and marriages:

Our nation's plummet from the largest federal surplus to history's biggest deficit.

In 2000, the nation had a budget surplus equal to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. Today, we have a deficit almost double that surplus. And household debt has risen from 70 percent of GDP in 1999 to nearly 83 percent.

Our hurtle toward global warming, which even a recent
Pentagon
report says "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern."

Our inability to provide decent medical care to millions of citizens. Roughly 45 million people are without health insurance.

The U.S. infant mortality rate has climbed for the first time in more than 40 years.

The EPA wants to defer controls on mercury emissions by power plants, even though more than 630,000 infants are born each year with blood mercury levels sufficiently high to cause brain damage.

Our massive loss of jobs, including the disappearance of 2.2 million payroll jobs since President Bush took office.

Approximately 8.2 million American workers are unemployed; millions more are underemployed and additional millions have given up trying to find jobs.

Our increasing inequities between rich and poor.

According to the
Department of Agriculture
, 11 percent of U.S. families are not adequately fed. But purveyors of luxury goods are enjoying booming business as the wealthy beneficiaries of recent tax cuts increase their purchases of lavish baubles and Rolls-Royces.